Agarose gel electrophoresis

CAM, in turn,  has largely been replaced by agarose as a support medium for free electrophoresis  in medical diagnosis. Although agarose is a gel, it has a macroreticular structure    and thus  does not impede the  electrophoretic  migration of molecules of less than  ca. 500 kDa. Proteins are thus not usually retarded but nucleic acids can be separated on the basis of their size by gel sieving.  As with all gels, water cannot flow through agarose.  There  is therefore  no necessity to maintain the two buffer reservoirs at the  same height,  since the buffer is unable to siphon through an agarose gel.

Agarose has other advantages:  it can  be obtained in a form  with zero Electroendosmosis, it can be cast onto a sheet of flexible plastic Gel-Bond ^Æ and, after  staining  and destaining,  it  can be dried onto  the  Gel-Bond to provide a durable record which is easily filed.

References 

Dennison, C. (2002). A guide to protein isolation . School of Molecular mid Cellular Biosciences, University of Natal . Kluwer Academic Publishers new york, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow .